First, before we go much further, I want to make sure that uh we acknowledge and extend our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the family of two-year-old uh Benny Mbo, uh who tragically lost his life several weeks ago at the Polaris Place apartments in a retention pond.

Um a father of a five-year-old know Councilmember Green has a son around the same age, and uh we can't begin to fathom what kind of um tragedy and what the heartbreak that's going through for those that family right now.

Uh certainly also want to acknowledge and uh share our condolences and thoughts with Georgina Villar's family as well, who uh was also lost in a retention pond this past summer.

Uh these are not statistics, these are you know precious children in our community that had a whole life ahead of them that had a future um who now their families are dealing with uh unspeakable tragedy.

And those are the reasons why we are here this morning or this afternoon.

And certainly I think uh the way that uh we need to center ourselves as we think about what, if any, public policy solutions we can bring uh to try and prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening in the future.

Um before we get into things, I certainly want to thank folks for their preparation for today's hearing.

Uh city staff you'll be hearing today from our director of Department of Building Zoning Services, Scott Messer, uh Dr.

Mashika Roberts and Edward Johnson from Columbus Public Health, uh, and Ken McCain from our legislative research office.

Appreciate everyone's work, uh particularly in a pretty compressed timeline uh to be here uh as we've started to consider additional legislation on this topic.

Uh also want to thank Councilmember Green uh who's here with me here today.

I know Councilmember Ross is planning on joining us as well.

Um I want to uh thank our council staff who's worked uh to get this hearing together today.

Uh certainly uh CTV for making sure that this hearing is accessible to other members of the public.

Um, and uh certainly want to thank uh the members of the public that you are here with us in chambers here today, or certainly watching this uh virtually.

Um the purpose of today's hearing again is to review legislation that this body passed back in 2024, uh learn about the enforcement and an outreach that the Department of Building Zoning Services has engaged in since that legislation was enacted.

Hear from Columbus Public Health on data related to drownings and their research on safety barriers.

Uh we will also review newly proposed emergency legislation by council that will be considered for a vote on November 2nd and further safety measures that I'm committed myself uh to bring before the body uh by the end of the year.

Uh again, this hearing is being live streamed on CTV and Council's social pages.

Uh also as normal that uh this hearing will be posted on the City of Columbus's YouTube channel following this event.

Um back in December of 2024, uh, this council passed the first of its kind legislation which established safety regulations at multi-unit residential ponds.

Uh that legislation made it a requirement for landlords to give warning notices to tenants, have life-saving preservers and signage while also establishing a mechanism to address problematic ponds as public nuisances.

Since then, our partners at Columbus Building Zoning Services have done a lot of work identifying and mapping and inspecting more than a hundred apartment retention ponds across the city to bring them in compliance with that legislation.

However, uh as we look at the tragedies have still occurred, it's clear that we have systemic gap that we all must work towards solving together.

If an apartment swimming pool is required by law to have a fence, we have to look at why a dangerously deep retention pond right next to it is permitted to remain while completely exposed without any barriers.

We cannot allow our life-saving policies to sit on shelf while we uh while we work to evolve to meet the urgency of this moment.

Uh today is about figuring out a way for council and the various departments to collaborate on what is the best solution.

We're here to look at how do we support our current uh code enforcement teams, strengthen our current tools, and build towards a comprehensive regulations on this topic by the end of this year.

Our

goal today is to look forward, identify what is preventing us from utilizing every tool in the toolbox, including our nuisance abatement process and ensure that our apartments have the resources and legislative teeth they need in order to keep our kids safe.

Uh appreciate again uh both folks here um from the city side that have worked uh on this back in 2024 and are willing to engage on this topic here again.

Um again want to thank my colleagues for being willing to uh on fairly quick notice for us to move forward on this legislation as well.

Uh so with that I do want to pause and see Councilmember Green if you had anything you wanted to say before we sort of dive into things.

Great, thank you.

Uh I'd like to first turn the floor over to senior senior policy advisor from City Council's legislative research office, Kevin McCain, to review the legislation that was passed by this body back in 2024.

Mr.

Cain, floor is yours.

Thank you, Council Project.

Thank

you, Council President Pro Tem uh and Councilmember Green

and

Councilmember Ross.

My name is Kevin McCain.

I am a senior policy advisor in Council's legislative research office.

Before I begin.

Before I begin,

I

want to make sure we recognize my colleague and partner in the legislative research office, John Oswald, for all his work as the drafter of the 2024 legislation and the new proposed amendments that we'll get into later today's hearing.

Unfortunately, he's under the weather, so I'm filling in for him today.

To set the stage for today's public hearing, I want to step back and review the framework currently on the books.

In late 2024, under the leadership of Council President Pro Tem Rob Dorns, this council unanimously passed Columbus's first ever retention pond safety ordinance, codified as Section 452517 of the City Code.

To understand why we are proposing new regulations today, we must first review what led to its passage in 2024 and what that ordinance mandated.

Prior to 2024, our city code required swimming pools to have fencing and heavy regulation, but man-made retention ponds on private residential properties had zero baseline safety mandates.

This regulatory gap resulted in devastating and tragic events throughout the Columbus community, documented by clear local health data that you'll hear more about from Columbus Public Health.

Official tracking from the Franklin County Child Fatality Review and public data shared by the Franklin County Coroner's Office revealed that between 2013 and 2022, 11 children tragically lost their lives to drowning in man-made ponds within the City of Columbus.

Local health data confirmed that drowning stood as the fourth leading cause of external injury death for children ages 1 to 13 in Franklin County.

According to additional records from the Franklin County Coroner's Office, the risk extended to adults as well, with 21 adult drownings recorded in Franklin County Ponds between 2021 and late 2024.

Complexes like Hartford on the Lake that has renamed itself Lakeshore Cove on the city's southeast side are harrowing examples, logging 11 water related fatalities alone since 1998.

Faced with these figures, this council determined that leaving retention pond safety entirely to landlord discretion was no longer an option.

The